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by ma_r



Series: Bleeding Red Instead of Gold [1]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25701319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ma_r/pseuds/ma_r
Summary: They come home.They come home and their house is broken. There are ruins where there once were rooms. The trees aren’t dancing. The land is silent. Their friends are dead.
Relationships: Caspian & Edmund Pevensie & Lucy Pevensie & Peter Pevensie & Susan Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie & Lucy Pevensie & Peter Pevensie & Susan Pevensie
Series: Bleeding Red Instead of Gold [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863949
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted from tumblr [(x)](https://exolovek.tumblr.com/post/622214444304531456/home).

They come home. 

They come home and their house is broken. There are ruins where there once were rooms. The trees aren’t dancing. The land is silent. Their friends are dead. 

They come home. And where there was peace now there is war. The weight of their weapons is a familiar burden.

They come home and it’s different-  _ Narnia _ is different. 

They feel the difference as they walk. The wind isn’t whispering secrets in their ears. The animals are foaming at the mouth. The trees don’t arch to shade them from the unrelenting sun. The grass doesn’t seem to tremble when their feet touch the ground. The sky doesn’t listen when they talk. The land doesn't cushion them when they fall. They get lost. 

(The valleys were forged as they bleed, the mountains raised with their voice, the rivers carved by their tears. How can they be  _ lost _ in the land they helped birth?)

_ You might find Narnia,  _ they tell them,  _ a more savage place than you remember _ and it’s an insult. What they see is not savagery. Wild animals, war, and silent trees are mundane. There is nothing savage about starving animals killing for food or powerful men killing for greed.

They know of savagery. They felt it as they rode griffins and unicorns, as they sailed the seas and greeted the sirens. They felt it every time they sang with the centaurs at dawn, calling the sun back home. They have hunted with wolves and feasted on the bloody carcass of their prey. This silent land that doesn’t listen is not  _ savage _ . This silent land is a feral animal that was beaten down until it cowered. A cornered animal, waiting to strike back.  _ More savage.  _ It makes them laugh. And their ringing laugh makes the land remember the weight of their dancing feet. 

They tell them that Narnia is dead. That her people have fallen. And even though they know different. Even though they feel a familiar presence crawling in the back of their necks, binding their hearts and souls to their land, they believe them. 

They believe them because they came home. But the northern sky doesn’t echo when the Magnificent speaks. The sun of the south doesn’t shine brighter upon the Gentle request. The western woods are bare and burnt and they aren’t welcoming to the Just. The eastern sea still glitters, but it’s no longer calm. Its waves are ferocious, crashing against the shore trying to drown the roar of the Valiant. 

They believe them. Because their teeth aren’t as sharp, their hands aren’t as rough, their skin isn’t as thick and their voice is no longer the roar of a lion. They are as human as they can be. The sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve, bleeding red instead of gold. 

They come home, and a man that has never heard the song of the Moon and Stars wants their help. He calls himself a Prince, but he was crowned by a Usurper. A Usurper that is ruling their conquered dead land. 

Their land is dead (and it hurts, their veins ache with emptiness where there should be life, their ears bleed with the jarring silence and it even smells different, like smoke and pine instead of honeysuckle and ice). They will still bleed and die for it like their friends once did like they have done before.

Revenge, when it’s also justice, is sweet. And the blood of their enemies is a treat they desperately crave. 

They come home. And they are children that have survived more than one war. They are the product of a childhood that has been twice lived. They are older than they look. 

They come home and they laugh because  _ they are just children.  _ It makes their blood boil with the sound of war drums. Even without their crowns, they are still Kings and Queens. If one more person dares to doubt them, they will learn why the Great Lion chose them to lead his armies.

They come home and the land gives them a feast of bones.  _ I missed you,  _ It tells them with every new body that falls at their feet, with every drop of blood that bathes their skin.  _ Oh, how I missed you _ . 

They take the land’s gifts. They eat the bones, they burn the bodies and spread the ashes to awaken the trees, they bathe until their skin is painted red. They have finally sated the hunger and dampened the thirst that arose after they stumbled out of a wardrobe one and a thousand years ago. 

They come home and it's a glorious relief to finally stop pretending that they are anything else but gods. 

**Author's Note:**

> I am having feels about Narnia again and someone needs to tell me to stop. 
> 
> I don't know how to tag this work so if you have any suggestion please let me know.
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr](http://exolovek.tumblr.com/)


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